Ewald tessen



. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

EW'AL'D TESSEN, OF ROSTOCK, GERMANY.

COMPOSITION FOR REMOVING PAINT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 521,834, dated June 26, 1894. Application filed September 29, 1893- Serial No. 486.793. (N specimens.)

ject of the Grand Duke of Mecklenburg- Schwerin, residing at Rostock, inthe Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, German Empire, have invented a new and useful composition of matter to be used for the destruction or removal of paints or old dried layers of color from 'wood, stone, metal, and other materials, of which the followingis a specification.

Before entering into the details of the composition, it may be said that hitherto a caus tic lye or the flame'of a benzene-lamphas been generally used for the above-named purpose. Much time is lost and the workmanis highly molested by poisonousvapors when the paint is removed byafiame, and much the sameis the case,when a caustic lye, as forinstance spirit of sal ammoniac is employed. Moreover, these lyes, being liquid, run down on vertical surfaces, and it is, consequently, necessary to apply them several times, as by a single application only a thin layer, insufficient for a complete destruction, remains on the paint. The greatest drawback, however, is occasioned by the penetration of the lye into the wood, so that, when painting afterward with fresh oil-color, the oil becomes saponified, and the color does not dry at all. Nevertheless, caustic lye is still the best means known for quickly dissolving the said oldpaints, and it appears therefore desirable to bring the liquid lye into an unguentary state, so that it cannot run down, but remains sticking to the paint in a layer of the required thickness. Now, when using for theinspissation the substances chosen hitherto for such purpose, as for instance flour, dextrine, and the like, the disadvantage arises, that the gluten contained in those means, combines with the caustic alkali, so that, as a matter of course, the cans tic alkali is hindered from penetratinginto the paint, and, consequently, from destroying the same.

My invention, now, consists, first, in inspissating the caustic lye by means of carragoon-slime, which, containing no gluten, does not combine in a chemical sense with the lye, but causes the latter to acquire an unguentary consistency. It has been found, secondly, that the 'inspissated lye is prevented from penetrating into the wood, after the paint has been dissolved, by an addition of powdered chalk, and, thirdly, the compound is kept moist and pliant, and prevented from drying from the action of the air by an addition of oil-lime-soap. It is, finally, appropriate, to saturate the carrageen-slime with borax so as to prevent it thereby from becoming putrid.

For manufacturing my new compound I boil two and one-half kilos of carrageen with sixty kilos of water for two hours, and I mix the fifty kilos of slime obtained thereby with one-half kilo of borax, which soon dissolves. This mass is then mixed with twenty-five kilos of oil-lime-soap, and there are added to it, after cooling, one hundred and twenty-five kilos of acaustic lye of 40 Baum. The compound 'is finished by the addition of one hundred kilos of powdered chalk, which may have been previously colored by two and one-half kilos of ultramarine-green. 1

Even a very old and very hard paint may be completely destroyed and removed by covering it once with a sufficient layer of the above described ,compound, and letting the same act for about six hours.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

As a means for destroying, and removing paints or old and dry layers of color, a composition of matter consisting of eight per cent. oil-lime-soap, sixteen per cent. carragoon-slime, thirty-four per cent. chalk and forty-two per cent. caustic lye, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have signed this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EWALD TESSEN.

Witnesses:

R. HERPICH, H. GENEHR. 

